What lies ahead in 2006?

It's difficult to predict what the biggest stories of the new year will be. News, good and bad, breaks all the time, and on many occasions we never saw it coming.

That being said, several big events in 2006 figure to dominate headlines.

By the end of 2006, students from three high schools will be attending classes together in a new building.

Gadsden City High School will open in August, but the process of getting students enrolled begins much sooner.

Four orientation dates have already been set - Jan. 19, 23, 26 and 30 - for students to get a chance to see information about all the new school has to offer.

Principal Ed Miller calls it "one-stop shopping."

The advent of the new school also means the end of Emma Sansom, Gadsden and Litchfield high schools. The year of "lasts" will continue through the spring, culminating in the last graduations May 26.

A barometer of how well the students - and communities - are coming together will come early in the school year. Football season begins in late August, and a successful team will do wonders for creating unity.

Just watch Disney's "Remember the Titans" to see what Gadsden City's Titans could accomplish.

Alabama's statewide elections could be nasty in 2006, and battle lines have already been drawn in the gubernatorial primaries.

In the Democratic primary, Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley will attempt to use her popularity as a catapult to higher office. Former Gov. Don Siegelman, who

barely lost his 2002 re-election bid, will try to return to the Capitol despite being under federal indictment.

For the Republicans, Gov. Bob Riley will seek a second term. Roy Moore, a former Etowah County Circuit Court judge, will oppose him.

Moore was removed from his role as chief justice in 2003 when he defied a federal court order to remove the Ten Commandments monument he commissioned for the state judicial building.

State Sen. Harri Anne Smith, R-Slocomb, is considering a bid as well. She has potential to do well in the race despite being relatively unknown outside the Wiregrass. Smith will be positioned to attract votes from people who are reluctant to support Moore because of his removal from office and who were turned off by Riley's $1.2 billion tax package that voters defeated in 2003.

Expect Etowah County to be a popular place for candidates. Riley and Baxley both made several visits to the Gadsden area in 2005, and Moore is a local resident hoping to be the first Etowah Countian to serve as governor.

The chairman of the University of Alabama's political science department predicts that Riley will defeat Baxley in the Nov. 7 general election.

"General satisfaction with the state of affairs in Alabama will propel Governor Riley to a relatively easy re-election," David Lanoue said in the university's annual "Educated Guesses" survey. "Baxley will have a difficult time making the case for replacing Riley."

Lanoue thinks Riley will beat Moore by 10 percentage points in the June 6 primary.

Gadsden experienced great retail growth in 2005, and new developments are planned for construction or opening in 2006 - many assisted by city-provided incentives.

Two major projects for which the City Council has pledged tax rebates will continue to make news this year. Four tenants have signed letters of intent to locate in Lafferty's Landing, a development planned for Rainbow Drive along the Coosa River. The year ended with one of the tenants, Outback Steakhouse, working with developers on the site to come up with a better site for the restaurant to improve sight lines from Rainbow Drive.

Tenants could be named for the development planned at the current River Trace Golf Club in East Gadsden. The development is expected to bring three "big box" retailers to Gadsden.

The prospective tenants have not been named, but it's believed they will be business not currently in the city.

Developers hope to begin construction within a year.

Gadsden voters will go to the polls in August to vote in the mayor and City Council elections.

Mayor Steve Means has said he wants an eighth term, and a majority of council members said they plan to run again as well. Incumbents will surely tout retail growth in the city - a major new shopping center opened in 2005, and at least two more are being planned - but opponents might raise questions about incentives.

The new high school could be a major issue. The decision to consolidate Emma Sansom, Gadsden and Litchfield high schools into Gadsden City High wasn't accepted by all, and some people in South Gadsden were upset that the school board bought their houses to build the new campus - especially when Gadsden State Community College offered land at no cost.

The school opens in August, just a few weeks before the elections. If the school year gets off to a rocky start, voters might choose to take out their frustrations on the mayor and council. After all, members of the school board aren't elected but are appointed by the council.

Laws limiting the sale of cold medications used to make crystal methamphetamine took effect in 2005, and local officials say the creation of a drug task force in Etowah County has also helped the area's drug problem.

However, meth is an issue that won't go away. Late in the year, officials in Marshall County said they began to see more of the liquid form of meth.

The new year will bring new challenges for those whose job is to fight illegal drugs.

A tire dump in Attalla could cause a fire that would threaten the health of more than the town's 6,800 residents.

In 1994, Four Star Tire Recycling and Wholesale Brokerage Inc. began to amass what would eventually grow to a collection of 8 million scrap tires on First Street Northeast. The company went into bankruptcy in 2000 and the owner, Phillip Stargell, said he was unable to remove the tires.

The Alabama Department of Environmental Management has said cleanup of the Attalla tire dump is the No. 1 priority for work under the state Scrap Tire Environmental Quality Act.

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